The stagnation of learning levels in districts of India with a majority tribal population could be attributed to the mismatch of the languages that the children of these communities speak and the official language of instruction in the schools. To address this, this innovation looks at the integration of children’s home languages in the formal schooling system to strengthen foundational learning.
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recognises the disregard for children's home language (L1) in education as a critical factor leading to suboptimal learning outcomes. The National Curriculum Framework for Foundational Stages (NCF-FS 2022) has further provided detailed guidelines to incorporate children’s home language in early grades.
LLF collaborates with the governments in India to operationalise the intent of the national policies in the form of large-scale demonstration programmes for improving foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) through a multilingual approach.
This innovation operates through three components: a district demonstration programme, continuous professional development (CPD), and research and advocacy. In the district programme, multilingual teaching is implemented through developing teaching–learning materials and specialised teacher training. CPD reinforces this with on-site support from trained mid-tier officials, along with regular assessment and feedback. These sites also function as research fields to refine classroom strategies and generate evidence for advocating large-scale integration of children’s home languages.
Evaluations show positive impact, including improved learning outcomes and greater student participation. EGRA and EGMA mean scores have risen significantly: listening comprehension from 42% to 63%, accurate oral reading fluency from 28% to 68%, word-level dictation from 31% to 64%, basic addition/subtraction from 38% to 69%, and complex addition/subtraction from 26% to 50%.
This innovation was first implemented in 200 schools in Bastar district, Chhattisgarh, India. Based on its positive results and the state government’s commitment, the program was then expanded to 1524 schools across the district. Over the last 3 years, this innovation has reached 68000+ students and trained 2000+ teachers on multilingual pedagogy.
The goals for the next 2-3 years are, firstly, to consolidate the learning gains from the past work, and secondly, to intensively focus on complex linguistic settings within the classroom, such as classes with multiple home languages of the children and classes where the teachers do not know the children’s home languages, to devise and implement appropriate strategies for such situations.
Innovation started in schools where teachers and children spoke the same language. As we expanded, we found many classrooms with mixed languages and a clear mismatch. This led us to refine our approach and create training strategies to support teachers in multilingual classrooms.
To try this innovation, the most important first step is to understand your learners’ linguistic reality. Begin by understanding the home languages children speak, the language currently used for teaching. This helps you determine what your classroom's sociolinguistic situations and what level strategy you can adopt.
Next, integrate children’s home languages into the early-grade classroom through structured, practical steps. Start small- use the child’s L1 in oral activities, storytelling, conversation charts, and daily routines, and gradually connect it to reading and writing in the school language. You can use bilingual teaching-learning materials, big books, picture cards, and the four-block balanced literacy approach, which keeps children engaged and ensures every activity builds towards comprehension and skill development.
If you are part of a school system, collaborate with district or state academic bodies to access teacher guides, bilingual resources, and online courses they are not fluent in the children’s language.
Finally, involve the community. Organise storytelling festivals, curate local artefacts for a school museum, and work with parents to capture oral traditions. These low-cost steps deepen cultural relevance and make classrooms more inclusive.
